Life Aboard Persephone: 11/25/13

11/25/13

Just an update to let you know we’re still in port at San Miguel Marina. Jerry Luh ordered an ssb tuner and it is stuck in customs in Madrid, Spain. We’re ready to go otherwise. Every day is filled with chores onboard to organize, clean, prepare. To provision the boat and get propane we had a rental car, a Citroen Clio. Clio is the average size car here on Tenerife. Our rental was gasoline but most cars here are diesel. With a 1.2 liter engine it was very economical but definitely not a performance auto! Gerald called the engine a 3-legged hamster on a wheel. Basic transportation.

On Saturday afternoon we decided to see what Tenerife looks like, other than from the marina to the grocery stores/propane place and back. Ziggy, our neighbor we’re rafted to at the dock, suggested we drive to Masca so that’s what we did. First onto the Autopista Sur heading west then north. Off the highway to a smaller two lane road carved into the side of rocky cliffs following the coast. From the road sloping down to the coast are tiers of condos. Condos all along the coast as far as the eye can see. Every condo with an unobstructed ocean view. The other side of the road is basically up rocky terrain. Further along – we see banana tree plantations in terraced formations up and down the slopes. So many banana farms. The roads zig and zag. Looking up there are light colored stones in lines along the mountainside – like a vanilla swirl around a chocolate ice cream cone. These are roads carved into the edge of the mountain with a stone wall along the edge.

The roads continued to decrease in size as we made our way to Masca with no longer a line in the middle to keep lanes separate. There were pull-offs to let traffic by if two vehicles can’t fit side by side. Twisting our way up, up, up with hairpin switchbacks and commanding views to the crest of the mountain and then down the winding road to Masca. The villages here are structures built together along the edge of the hill in Spanish style architecture. At Masca we walked along the stone paths admiring the buildings fringed with colorful flowering plants, the view of the ocean way, way down the cliffs, and the sharp peaks above.

Clio, pulling as best as she could with her little engine, didn’t let us down as Gerald, our fearless chauffeur, sometimes shifted from first to second or second to first gear as we made our way up and down the rough roads. Then back on the Autopista Sur going 100-120 km/hr. back to San Miguel. Sounds so fast! For Clio, that is very fast.

Sunday turned out to be a great day for the first time to take the boat out. Because of tropical storm Melissa hundreds of miles away the wind had left our region. After untying the lines from Ziggy’s boat and then untying the lines from Daydream we left the marina with a light breeze. Mainsail up, jib out - everything works well. Gerald got out the fishing line and we had the opportunity to practice stopping the boat to pull in a fish when the pole bent over and Gerald started dancing all around. OK, next time we’ll be ready…by the time we stopped the boat the fish wiggled off the hook. A slow sail back to the marina at sunset.

So, here we’ll be until news about the ssb tuner and good weather. There are many boats that come and go. Many head to Cape Verde Islands and then to the Caribbean. Others go directly to a Caribbean island destination. One couple we met left Saturday headed to Antigua but ended up returning to the dock Sunday. Their wireless keyboard was not working. Funny in modern times what maladies keep a sailor in port. I’ll try to keep you up to date on our departure. You can always see if we’ve left by checking in to our SPOT page. Our friends Ryan and Kari aboard Valkyrie have a page to check the progress of both boats although neither have left port yet. Go to: http://spot.martellventures.com/group/Race+for+Burgers

Hope all is well with you and Happy Thanksgiving. Send news when you can.

Karen, Gerald, and Jerry aboard catamaran Daydream